Pfizer to slash R&D facilities post Wyeth merger
11 Nov 2009
Following its $68-billion merger with Wyeth (See: Pfizer-Wyeth create $68-billion blockbuster deal) Pfizer says it will reduce its global R&D square footage by 35 per cent.
The drug maker's R&D activities will now be concentrated at five main sites and nine specialised units around the world as compared with 20 R&D sites when it closed its acquisition of Wyeth on 16 October 2009.
Reports say, Monsanto Co, the agribusiness giant, has already said it will acquire Pfizer Inc.'s laboratories and greenhouses outside St. Louis for $435 million.
The five main research sites that will serve as central hubs for research activities in biotherapeutics, pharmatherapeutics and vaccines are Cambridge in Massachusetts.; Groton, Connecticut; Pearl River, in New York.; La Jolla in California; and Sandwich, in the UK.
These research laboratories will be supplemented by specialised research capabilities, such as monoclonal antibody discovery in San Francisco, regenerative medicine work in Cambridge, UK, and research and development activities in Shanghai, China.
Pfizer is reported to be planning to try to sell or lease its 750,000-square-foot New London headquarter.